Procedure: 3423P
Students
Precautionary Measures
1. Strangers before entering the building must satisfy the principal or his/her designee that they are on official business.
2. Credentials shall be demanded by the principal from any person representing an organization who seeks interviews with pupils; the organization should have official sanction from the superintendent’s office.
3. Definite identification shall be made of any person who seeks to confer with a child in school, or remove a child from the building, or who telephones or leaves directions as to where a pupil should meet another person. All requests for early dismissal shall be referred to the principal.
4. Request for permission to take a child from school or other privileges which are made by separated parents shall be referred either to the home in which the child is living or to the superintendent, unless there is positive knowledge that the person making the request has legal custody of the child.
5. Whenever possible, the law enforcement agency will contact the main office of the school by telephone to inform the principal or his/her designee of a planned visit and advise the administrator of the nature and circumstance of the visit.
6. Upon arrival at the school, except in cases of “hot pursuit” the police officer shall first call upon the principal or his/her designee and request permission to interview the pupil.
7. Interviews with children by law enforcement officers or other officials shall, in all matters of serious importance, be held with the principal or his/her designee present, and a parent present, when possible, during all interviews. When female students are involved a female faculty member should be involved in the absence of the mother or a policewoman.
8. In situations where the commission of a criminal offense has occurred in the presence of the police, the police have the legal right and responsibility to take direct and unhindered action whether it be in the school or other location. The principal or his/her designee shall be notified of the action taken as soon as possible.
9. In the event it becomes necessary to make apprehension during school hours, the police officer shall contact the principal or his designee to have the child summoned to the principal’s office or other suitable semi-private location before being released from the school into the custody of the police.
10. Police shall not make an arrest in the classroom except in cases of “hot pursuit” or “on view arrest” or upon the request of the principal.
11. The school shall record the name and organization of the officer, the time of departure, the juvenile court quarters, and the offense for which the apprehension was made.
12. When police authorities remove a student from the building as when making an arrest, school authorities will notify the child’s parents.
13. The following offenses shall require notification of the appropriate law enforcement agency:
a. Assaults involving the use of weapons, or recurring patterns of simple assault;
b. Reports of knives, firearms, ammunition, blasting caps, or any other weapons or explosives being brought to school;
c. Drinking and narcotic offenses;
d. Indecent assaults with the intent to ravish;
e. Rape or assault with the intent to ravish;
f. Morals offenses (pornography, exhibitionism, etc.);
g. Organized gambling (numbers and pools);
h. Display of large sums of money, jewelry, not usually in the possession of school children;
i. Criminal neglect or abuse of child;
j. Adults loitering on or near the school grounds at time pupils are going to and from school;
k. Unknown persons parked near schools at time pupils are going to and from school;
l. Telephone threats made to school personnel;
m. Arson or suspicion of arson;
n. Observation of reckless driving and traffic hazards endangering lives of school children;
o. Rumors or observations of any gang rivalries or activities;
p. Reports of incest or sexual exploitations;
q. Evidence of threats or intimidation or extortion;
r. Larcenies.
14. The following law violations occurring outside of normal school hours shall require notification of appropriate law enforcement agency:
a. Burglaries and any burglary attempts of school buildings;
b. Malicious mischief.